


When it's all revealed...

by flowing_river



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, BAMF Pepper Potts, Chronic Pain, Civil War Team Iron Man, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Headaches & Migraines, Hurt/Comfort, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, Magic, Mind Manipulation, Nightmares, Not Natasha Friendly, Not Sam friendly, Not Steve Friendly, Not Wanda Friendly, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Platonic Cuddling, Post-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Press and Tabloids, Protective Vision (Marvel), Sentient Infinity Stones (Marvel), Tony Stark Angst, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Touch-Starved, Whump, even though this is before cw, in the past, no team cap is not being redeemed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:20:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25497493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flowing_river/pseuds/flowing_river
Summary: It all starts off with a interview. Some reporter corners Steve and asks him a few questions. Everything goes to shit when he gets asked about Ultron and what he thought of the investigation.“Oh Stark threw his money at the investigators and made it go away. That’s all he ever does, throw money at things to fix them. We all know Stark made that murder bot,” Steve says with a look of disgust on his face, “He’ll do anything to get more money too.”And ofcourseeveryone believes him
Relationships: Happy Hogan & Tony Stark, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Jarvis (Iron Man movies) & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts & Tony Stark, Tony Stark & Avengers Team
Comments: 490
Kudos: 1191
Collections: Waiting For Updates - Marvel, Waiting for updates





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys like this one and this may be pre-civil war, but it is Team Tony and not friendly to Team Cap at all.

It all starts off with a interview. Some reporter corners Steve and asks him a few questions. Everything goes to shit when he gets asked about Ultron and what he thought of the investigation.

“Oh Stark threw his money at the investigators and made it go away. That’s all he ever does, throw money at things to fix them. We all know Stark made that murder bot,” Steve says with a look of disgust on his face, “He’ll do anything to get more money too.”

JARVIS shows Tony the news segment and all the responses to it. People are speaking out against him and calling for another investigation into him.

“Of course everyone believes him. He’s Captain America after all. Why would he _ever_ lie about something like this?” Tony rants.

“Should I call Ms. Potts?” JARVIS asks

Tony nods.

“I’m suing for slander,” she says when the call connects, “He has no sort of proof for saying something like that.”

“Pep, it’s alright. I’ll talk to him, I’m sure it was just a misunderstanding,” Tony says.

“ _A_ _misunderstanding?_ People are making threats against you, some people are making _death threats._ The company is already losing money and companies are withdrawing contracts with us. You spent years gaining those contracts and they’re gone now. People are already protesting and spreading all sorts of terrible things. I’m getting calls from government officials demanding an explanation-”

“Pep, breath. Release a statement, I’ll go talk to Steve. Everything will be fine, okay?” Tony cuts in.

There’s silence for a second before Pepper says, “Will that be all Mr. Stark?”

Tony cracks a smile at their little inside joke, “That’ll be all, Ms. Potts.”

After JARVIS hangs up, Tony sits down and sighs, rubbing his face. Despite his reassurances to Pepper, he’s not quite sure this problem can be fixed that easily.

“Sir, I put the coffee on for you,” JARVIS says, interrupting his trail of thoughts.

“J, you’re the best. What would I do without you?” Tony asks, making his way to the kitchen and pouring himself a cup of coffee. He gulps it all down without waiting for it to cool down and pours himself another cup.

“Based on prior observation, likely something stupid,” JARVIS replies.

Tony smiles and shakes his head, “How did you learn to get so snarky?”

“Observation, sir,” JARVIS says.

Tony sighs, but he knows his smile is giving him away.

“Hey J, how’s it looking outside?” Tony asks.

“I would suggest going a more covert route,” JARVIS replies.

Tony goes into his bedroom and changes into an old, worn hoodie and some comfortable sweats, nothing anything would think he would ever wear.

He goes into his garage and gets into his car no one knows about (yet) and drives like a normal person.

He spends the whole drive to the Compound with a pit of anxiety over someone recognizing him, even though he knows his windows are tinted enough that it’s unlikely that will happen.

When he arrives, he turns the car off and takes a few minutes to prepare himself. He didn’t particularly like visiting the compound, it always reminded him of why he took a step back from the Avengers after Ultron.

It had become too much for him, even his therapist had agreed with him. After Afghanistan, he realized he needed help and Pepper and Rhodey had helped him find someone.

She had helped him get through a lot and she was the only person (besides Rhodey) who knew pretty much everything that happened to him in his life.

She had agreed when he had admitted he was tired of the environment in the Avengers was not good for him. Every time he finally started getting better, the nightmares and anxiety and panic attacks lessoning something else would happen and he would be back to square one.

He was tired of going through the endless cycle over and over again. That’s why he had decided to take a step back (unless another alien invasion or something of course). He had to admit he was doing better, and people had noticed.

But now being back here was bringing up all sorts of memories, thinking JARVIS was gone, Thor strangling him, Steve throwing his shield at him, Wanda’s mind magic…

“Sir? My sensors are detecting you are in significant distress,” JARVIS suddenly says.

“Oh god,” Tony says realizing he’s shaking and recognizing that’s he’s headed for an anxiety attack.

He grabs for his anxiety medicine and opens the bottle with shaking hands. He manages to take one and waits a few minutes for it to take effect.

He takes shaky breaths until he feels his heartbeat slow down and his hands stop shaking.

“Sir are you okay?” JARVIS asks.

“I’m fine J,” he says.

Tony takes a minute to compose himself before getting out of the car and walking towards the door. He’s reassured by the fact that JARVIS is on his phone and he can call the suit and it would be here in just a few minutes.

Since he doesn’t live at the Compound anymore, the team had told him to disconnect JARVIS from there. They said they weren’t comfortable with an AI constantly watching them after Ultron.

He walks inside and makes a face at the mess in the Compound.

_They can’t even pick up after themselves._

No wonder he kept getting messages from them to hire a cleaning crew for them. They probably thought this sort of thing was beneath them.

The Avengers are sitting around the table and eating. They are laughing and chatting with each other and Tony ignores the feeling he gets when he remembers how they were never that friendly with him.

When they see him, the talk all dies down and they get a distrustful look on their face.

“What are you doing here?” Steve asks.

“What, no hello, nice to see you again Tony?” Tony replies, letting a fake smile sit on his face.

Steve rolls his eyes, “You didn’t answer my question.”

“He’s here because of what you said in that interview yesterday,” Natasha cuts in.

“Really, Tony? That wasn’t that big of a deal that you had to come all the way over here to talk to me,” Steve scoffs.

Tony resists the urge to yell at Steve about how big of a deal it is. He knows that there’s no way Steve is going to listen to him if he does.

“It is a big deal, giving and accepting bribes is illegal. I could be arrested because of what you said. My company’s already suffering and losing contracts and-”

“So this about you losing money,” Steve sneers, “Of course.”

“It’s not about _me_ losing money. It’s about my employees suffering. They haven’t done anything wrong, they don’t deserve to have all their hard work disappear. And I have many connections in the government. There’s talk about me being investigated for espionage,” _which is funny considering I’m not the spy on the team_ , “and being investigated in general-”

“If you didn’t do anything wrong, then there’s no reason to worry about any investigations,” Steve dismisses, turning away from him to continue eating his food.

“And when I’m cleared from those investigations and everyone thinks I paid them off because of what you said?” Tony asks.

“You won’t get arrested or anything, so it doesn’t matter,” Steve says.

“I am getting _death threats_ , I had to sneak out of my own home to come here. It _does_ matter.”

“So what do you want me to do about it?” Steve asks.

“Go out there, play it off as a joke or something. I’ll get my PR team to write you a statement if you want, hell _I’ll_ write you something, but you have to help me out here,” Tony says.

He hates that he has to practically beg with Steve and he’s still not sure this will work. And for once he hates that’s he’s right.

“I don’t have to do anything for you Tony. We’re not friends. And I wasn’t lying in the interview and I refuse to lie to people about that,” Steve says, straightening up to show off all that self-righteousness.

Tony ignores the hurt he feels at that statement and straightens up himself.

“Well then, I should get going. Have a good day, or not,” he says turning around to leave.

He sees the red of Wanda’s magic in his peripheral vision and uses all his years of keeping masks up in front of people to stop his flinch. He’s thankful for his anxiety medicine still being in effect because his heart rate doesn’t even speed up.

He doesn’t react as he walks out until he reaches his car and sits inside. He sighs and lays his head on the steering wheel.

“How did I get into such a fucked up situation?” Tony asks.

“I would blame Steve Rogers for this particular situation,” JARVIS replies.

Tony sighs again, “I need more coffee to deal with this.”

“Should I call Ms. Potts?” JARVIS asks.

“Just get FRIDAY to update her on the situation. Tell her that she can do what she thinks is best,” Tony says.

“Of course, sir,” JARVIS responds, sounding a bit to excited about letting Pepper go after Steve.

“J, whatever you’re up to, make sure it’s not illegal,” Tony says with another sigh.

“I would never engage in any sort of illegal activities, sir,” JARVIS responds.

Tony turns the car on, “Time to go home.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back with another chapter, hope you guys like it!!

Pepper was furious. It took a lot to make her angry usually, but someone going after one of her friends? That was a sure way to put her on a warpath.

When FRIDAY had told her what JARVIS had sent over, Pepper was glad she didn’t have extremis anymore because she would have probably exploded.

Hearing Tony had an anxiety attack from just having to talk to Rogers was bad enough and that wasn’t even touching anything he said to Tony.

Thank goodness FRIDAY had been there to help her calm down a bit. After Ultron, Tony had figured out a way to fix JARVIS, so he had gifted her FRIDAY to help her out with SI (though she was still in his lab apparently). Pepper had to admit, she was one of Tony’s better gifts.

Pepper already had all the paperwork ready for suing Rogers and now that Tony had given her his blessing to whatever she wanted, she called her lawyers to file it.

She also started looking into Tony’s funding for the Avengers and how much he paid for their housing and other expenses.

“I’m sure the public will be interested to learn about this,” she murmurs after seeing the millions of dollars he’s put into them.

_Yes, everything is working out perfectly,_ she thinks as she reaches for her phone to call the PR team, _Rogers doesn’t know what’s coming for him._

* * *

Tony is a bit surprised when he sees Happy waiting for him when he gets home.

“What’s wrong? Is Pepper okay?” he asks, worried by the expression on Happy’s face.

Happy looks sad when he says that and he replies, “Nothing’s wrong with Pepper.”

“Do you need something then? You could have just told JARVIS and-”

“I don’t need anything from you, boss. I was just worried after seeing all the shit going on. I came to check on you,” Happy interrupts.

“Oh,” Tony says, trying to mask the surprise he feels.

He isn’t very successful based on how Happy looks at him.

“Well I’m fine, doing well. I know you’re probably busy so you can go now-”

“And leave you to fend off all the crowds by yourself boss?” Happy asks.

“I’m Iron Man,” Tony says, “I’m capable of defending myself.”

“Never said you weren’t, but it’s good to have some help. And I know you would never use the suit if you were attacked by a crowd.”

“Maybe some help would be nice,” Tony says ignoring the second part of Happy’s statement.

Happy smiles at him, “I’ll drive you to your meeting.”

Tony protests immediately but is cut off by the look Happy gives him. He sighs and runs into his bedroom to change into a suit and fix his hair. When he comes out, Happy is drinking a cup of coffee and he hands one to Tony.

Tony takes a long sip and smiles at the fact that Happy still remembers how he likes his coffee. Tony quickly finishes the cup and grabs his sunglasses and slips them on.

He sits in the backseat as usual with Happy and is grateful for the tinted windows, even though he knows the car has been recognized and he’s 95% sure that they’re being followed by a bunch of reporters.

When they get to the building the meeting is going to be in, their car is immediately surrounded by a bunch of people who are yelling and protesting. It takes some time for Tony to get out of the car.

Happy is already by his side and he’s trying to push people away and make room for Tony to get through. Tony is keeping his head low and not responding to anything anyone is yelling a him.

He feels some people trying to grab him and he shrugs them off, trying not to escalate the situation. He doesn’t even react when he feels things being thrown at him. He makes sure none of them are hitting Happy and ignores them.

He can’t help stumbling into Happy though when something that feels like a rock hits his face. Happy steadies him and quickly ushers him inside where security keeps the crowd from rushing inside.

Tony internally curses at the feeling of a bruise being formed on his face, knowing he can’t hide it right now. He makes a mental note to start carrying around makeup for emergencies.

“You okay, boss?” Happy asks.

“I’m fine, you didn’t get hit right?”

Happy ignores the question, “Shit, you’re bleeding,” he says looking at Tony’s face.

He hands Tony a napkin and he uses it to wipe the blood off his face. The wound is still bleeding a bit, but Tony can’t really do anything about it.

He quickly walks into the meeting room where Pepper and a few other people are waiting for him. He sees their eyes widen when they see his face.

“Tony, what happened?” Pepper asks.

Tony doesn’t comment on the casual tone and answers, “Got caught up in the crown outside. Pretty sure someone threw a rock at me.”

Pepper’s face darkens.

“Are you okay, Dr. Stark?” someone asks him.

“I’m fine,” he says, ending the discussion.

They all start discussing how bad the company’s doing after Steve’s interview and all the different things that are going wrong. Tony mostly zones it out. He had already guessed it.

“Dr. Stark?” someone asks bringing him out of him out of the new medical device he had half-way designed in his head.

He mentally rewound the conversation in his head which he hadn’t really been listening to and answered the question that had been directed to him,

“Sorry, I talked to Steve, he isn’t going to do anything about this. He stands by what he said.”

He looks at the various expressions of shock on the people’s faces.

“I thought you were friends with him,” someone says.

Tony holds back a wince remembering Steve’s harsh words.

“We’re not friends,” he says echoing those words, “We’re…colleagues. He doesn’t like me very much because of my past, we don’t really get along.”

“Your past?”

“Yeah he didn’t like that my weapons were sold to terrorists,” Tony says.

“But you didn’t sell those weapons, that was Stane. That’s common knowledge. And wasn’t he in the military? Wouldn’t he like that you made weapons for the military?”

Tony sighs, “I don’t know. All I know is that he read whatever bs SHIELD wrote in my file and believed it and decided he didn’t like me before he even met me.”

They all look surprised.

“And after Ultron, well he blames me for that too. And since Wanda joined the team, they don’t need me on the team anymore.”

“Who is she? We don’t know anything about her,” Pepper asks.

“Her name is Wanda Maximoff. She’s Sokovian. She uh, blames me for her parents deaths.”

“What?” Pepper asks.

“Yeah that was one of the reasons I stepped back. When she was a kid, a bomb fell on her house and killed her parents that had my name on it. She and her brother survived, and they blamed me. I looked into it, they were fakes from the black market.”

“And she still blames you?”

“It was a traumatic experience for her. She and her brother wanted revenge, so they…joined HYDRA and let themselves be experimented on to get powers.”

“HYDRA?” someone gasps.

“Yeah she claims she thought they were SHIELD, but I doubt it would be too hard to put together. She worked with Ultron at first too and messed with everyone’s minds. Well everyone except me and Clint.”

“Why not you?” Pepper asks, “I mean you were the one she wanted revenge against, why wouldn’t she target you.”

Tony frowns, “I never thought of that. I’ll have J look into it.”

“So Captain America just let a former HYDRA agent on the team?” someone asks, “What if she’s mind controlling everyone?”

“I asked Vision about that. He keeps an eye out on her just in case. She isn’t mind controlling anyone,” Tony sighs.

“But she’s HYDRA, she could still have tricked everyone into joining and then pushed you out of the team to weaken them,” someone else says, sounding panicked.

“We should release this information to the public,” Pepper says, “I’ll tell a reporter to look into it when I go for my interview tomorrow-”

“Interview?” Tony cuts in.

“Yes to defend your reputation,” Pepper says.

Tony ducks his head at that. He knew Pepper had released a statement, but he hadn’t expected her to go out and defend him publicly.

He looks up to see Pepper looking at him and he can tell she knows exactly what he’s thinking.

The rest of the meeting goes well, at everyone comes up with a plan to deal with the mess Steve made. It’s a pretty good plan all things considered. Tony just hopes it’ll work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think!!
> 
> Next chapter-Some Steve POV


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Hope you guys enjoy this one!!

Steve relaxes as he stretches out on the couch in front of the big TV. The rest of the team is also sitting with him, watching TV together as they always do. They’re watching the news, which they always do for a few minutes so they can be up to date with everything.

Today they’re talking about Stark and what he said about him. Steve can’t believe these people didn’t know about Stark’s greed beforehand, he knew it as soon as he saw the man.

He’s glad to see the public has sense, though, and they are all calling for an investigation. He’s sure Stark will buy his way out of this one as well, and he has no indication of helping him. Even after all those excuses Stark made to him earlier, he’s sure Stark was just making them up.

Then the newscaster mentions something about an interview with Pepper Potts and that catches Nat’s attention.

“Leave it on,” she says, “We should here what she has to say.”

“Why?” Wanda asks, “She’s probably just going to praise her boyfriend.”

“They’re not dating,” Nat replies, “I don’t think they ever did, but Potts is well liked by the public. She’s a female CEO of a huge company and she has a lot of connections and influence. It would be good to hear what she’s saying about Steve, so we can be prepared.”

They all agree that Nat makes a good point, so they continue watching. It only takes a few minutes for her to come onto camera, wearing a sharp suit and looking a bit…angry?

The interview starts normally and then the question they are waiting for is asked.

“Ms. Potts, what do you think of Captain Rogers’ recent allegations against Mr. Stark?”

“They’re completely false statements against _Dr_. Stark. Stark Industries has filed a lawsuit against the Captain for this.”

_Of course Stark would stoop so low, just to get more money._

“A lawsuit?”

“Yes, Captain Rogers made a baseless allegation against Dr. Stark without any sort of proof or evidence that is damaging his reputation which is by definition, slander. His words have caused a lot of damage for a lot of different people, including the employees for Stark Industry. And Tony isn’t going to let our employees suffer because of Captain Rogers’ false statement.”

_I can’t believe Stark would get Potts to go along with him to use his employees as an excuse to get more money._

“You’ve worked for Dr. Stark for many years, how is his attitude towards his money?”

“Dr. Stark is a generous man. He has a lot of money, but he always gives so much of it to people who needs it more than he does. And it’s quite hypocritical of Captain Rogers to accuse Tony like this when he freely uses Tony’s money.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean that Tony funds the Avengers from his own money. Despite not being a member anymore he pays for all their transport, clean up, fixes up their gear _and_ he also pays for all their personal expenses. He provides them with housing, food, and anything else they want.”

_He owes us that. It’s the least he can do after everything he’s done._

The newscaster looks shocked.

“I have proof of all this,” Potts continues, “Which will be released to the public soon.”

“Do the Avengers not have any source of income?”

“Captain Rogers and Agent Romanoff worked for SHEILD, but after SHIELD fell, I don’t believe they get any income. Mr. Wilson used to work for a support group for veterans, but he left that when he became part of the team. I’m not aware of Ms. Maximoff’s history.”

_We’re Avengers, we can’t work like civilians!_

“They don’t have jobs?”

“No, they sit around the Compound and use Tony’s money and then complain about it and make completely false accusations against Dr. Stark.”

“What about The Vision?”

“Dr. Stark is his legal guardian.”

_Stark never mentioned this to me! He has to stop hiding things from me._

The newscaster interrupts the interview for some ads and Sam mutes the TV.

“We’re in trouble,” Nat says.

“Why?” Steve asks, “They’re not going to believe her over me.”

Nat shakes her head, “She’s extremely well liked by the public, especially the younger people. And she could easily back up everything she said, and she won’t hesitate to help Stark.”

“So what should we do?” Sam asks.

“We have to find some proof of Steve’s claims, that’s the way to keep the public on our side,” Natasha says.

“That should be easy,” Wanda says, “I’m sure he’s done plenty of things we could reveal about him.”

“Maybe,” Nat says, “But it would be hard to find evidence of it.”

“Couldn’t you hack into his systems or something?” Sam asks.

“I would hope not,” Vision’s voice cuts in, “hacking into Dr. Stark’s systems is illegal.”

“It was, uh, a joke,” Sam stutters.

Vision does not look like he believes him, but he turns his attention away from Sam and to Steve.

“I just wanted to let you know, Captain, that I am leaving that Compound. I will still be available for Avenger missions of course.”

“Where are you going?” Wanda asks narrowing her eyes.

“To Stark tower, Tony invited me to live there and since he is my legal guardian, I decided to accept his offer.”

Steve frowns. Having Vision away would make it easier for them to go out to look for Bucky without Tony finding out and would make it easier to avoid questions, but the way Vision talks about leaving…

“He’s not forcing you to leave is he? Because he’s your guardian? We could ask someone else to become your guardian is you need-”

“Nothing of the sort Captain,” Vision says in an almost cold voice, “Tony isn’t forcing me to do anything. He offered and I accepted. And he’s a wonderful guardian, I wouldn’t wish for anyone else.”

Everyone says their goodbyes and Vision leaves with a few bags of luggage.

* * *

When Tony gets home, Rhodey is waiting for him.

“Platypus!” Tony says, running to him and engulfing him in a hug.

Rhodey returns the hug and ruffles his hair.

“Hey!” Tony says, swatting away Rhodey’s hand.

“I came as soon as I heard the news. That _bastard-_ ”

“I don’t think you should be insulting national icons,” Tony interrupts.

“Jim’s right, he is a bastard,” Happy says.

“Exactly. That bastard…what happened to your face Tony? Did someone _punch_ you?” Rhodey asks horrified.

Tony lifts his hand and touches the wound on his face, his hand coming away with a bit of blood.

“Pretty sure someone threw a rock at me.”

That must have been the wrong thing to say because Rhodey looks even more horrified.

“It’s no big deal,” Tony says quickly.

Happy mutters something that sounds like, “And now you’ve done it,” and Tony glares at him.

“No big deal? Tony you’re bleeding, your face has a huge bruise on it. You could have broken something, you could have-”

“Cool it, Rhodey. I had JARVIS scan is already and everything’s fine.”

Rhodey walks towards the kitchen and Tony and Happy follow him. He pulls out an icepack out of the freezer and hands it to Tony.

“Mother-hen,” Tony mutters under his breath, but presses the icepack to his face anyways.

“So what is all this about?” Rhodey asks.

Tony quickly explains everything he knows so far, with Happy adding a few things in as well (mostly insults). Rhodey looks absolutely murderous when he’s done.

“Rhodey, murdering Steve is illegal,” Tony says.

“No one will find out,” Rhodey says.

“I’ll help hide the body,” Happy volunteers.

“We are _not_ murdering national icons. We are not doing anything. Pepper is taking care of the legal aspect of this and I just need to keep my head low until this blows over. We might need to deal with an investigation or two-”

“Who are you and what have you done with Tony Stark?”

“What?”

“Why are you not going out there and verbally destroying Rogers, proving your innocence, and then kicking out those freeloaders?”

“He’s _Captain America._ ”

“So? Does this have something to do with Howard? I knew I should have punched that asshole,” Rhodey says.

Happy nods in agreement.

“No you shouldn’t have, Howard could have ruined your life,” Tony says, “And this has nothing to do with Howard.”

“Sir, Vision is waiting outside,” JARVIS says, cutting into their conversation.

“Send him up,” Tony says.

They wait for Vision to come to Tony’s floor and help him put his things in his room.

“Thank you for letting me stay here, Tony. Staying with the rest of the team was quite terrible.”

Tony feels horrified, “Have they been saying shit about you? You should have told me earlier, I would have let you come here right away-”

“It was not terrible because of how they treated me. It was because of how they treated _you_.”

“Oh,” Tony says.

Vision looks at him and frowns, “Are you feeling okay, Tony?”

“Yes why?” Tony asks.

Rhodey and Happy are also looking concerned at him. Vision looks at him for a few seconds before his eyes widen.

“Someone is influencing your mind!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about that cliffhanger...
> 
> Since this is not long after Ultron, Vision is not close to anyone on the team, except Tony because he still has some memories from JARVIS and because Tony actually got to know him...
> 
> Let me know what you think!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys like this one!!

Tony freezes in shock, “What?”

“There’s magic influencing your mind. It seems to be coming from something like this,” Vision says gesturing at the gem embedded in his forehead.

“Could it have been the scepter?” Rhodey asks.

_How long have I been controlled for? What things have I done that I don’t remember? What if I hurt someone?_

“Tony?” Rhodey’s voice interrupts, “You okay?”

“What if it’s _her?_ Pepper said it was weird she claims that she wanted revenge on me, but she tried attacking everyone but me. What if she’s controlling me?” Tony asks.

Rhodey and Vision exchange a look.

“It’s possible,” Vision says, “Her powers come from the gem, but there’s no way to know for sure. Whatever it is, it’s not controlling you completely, just influencing your thoughts and decisions. I can remove it.”

“Do it,” Tony says.

Vision’s gem starts glowing and then all Tony can see is red and then black.

* * *

Jim catches Tony when his knees buckle, and he collapses. He carries Tony into his room and lays him down on the bed and covers him with a blanket.

He goes back to the kitchen where Vision is waiting.

“How long will he be out?” Jim asks

“A few hours. I think Tony was right. The magic looked like Ms. Maximoff’s magic, it’s likely she was the one influencing him,” Vision says

“That must be why he’s not doing that much about that asshole Rogers,” Jim says.

Jim and Vision spend the next few hours going over plans on how to destroy Rogers and Maximoff, with Pepper participating over the phone. She had been absolutely livid when they had told her about the mind control.

Tony walks in when Jim is in the middle of describing how he would slowly ruin Rogers and then kill him. He goes straight to the coffee machine and pours himself a cup, drinking about half of it in on gulp. He walks to the couch, rubbing his head as he sits down.

“Run through that for me again, Rhodey?”

Jim smiles, _looks like Tony is back._

“How are you feeling?” he asks.

“Like someone put my brain through the blender,” Tony says shrugging.

Vision’s gem glows for a second then he says, “Your mind is clear.”

Tony nods, “I can feel that. I have the urge to get into my suit and find Rogers to punch things out.”

“Sounds good, JARVIS can change the footage from the Compound, no one will find out,” Jim says.

Tony laughs, “I think I’ll go a different route honey bear. J, call Pepper, tell her to organize a press conference in a few hours.”

“Of course sir. I’ll tell her to prepare for a more memorable one than your 2008 conferences,” JARVIS says.

“I don’t think anyone can top that, not even you yourself,” Jim says.

“Just watch me.”

* * *

In the compound, Wanda curses as she suddenly loses he connection to Stark’s mind. She’ll have to get close to him to reestablish the connection. She smiles as she comes up with a plan.

* * *

A few hours later:

Tony knows he should probably be resting. His head still hurts, and he knows he’s probably going to get a migraine if he doesn’t lay down and sleep.

But for the first time in _weeks_ his minds has felt clear and he knows exactly what to do. He’s not going to let the Avengers run all over him again. He knows he can’t prove it, but he knows it was the witch making him willing to put up with anything the team did to him.

He’s not going to stand for it anymore.

He doesn’t put any makeup on his face, he doesn’t want to cover up what Rogers has indirectly done to him.

He stands up in front of the media. None of them are yelling and they don’t even look that angry. That gives him the courage to start talking.

“Hey everyone, it’s been a while,” he starts off.

That cracks a few smiles in some people.

“We all know why I’m here. Captain Rogers has recently made some accusations against me that my CEO Ms. Potts has already addressed.

I know some people were surprised that I personally hadn’t said anything and taken that as proof that what he said about me is true.

The real reason I hadn’t stepped up to say anything was because someone had been influencing my mind to stay silent.”

Tony hears some gasps coming from the audience.

“At this point, we’re still looking into who or what was behind this. Vision removed all the magic, but we can’t be sure how long I have been influenced for.

Now for the reason you are all here for, I would like to say I have not ever taken nor given bribes of any kind. The Captain has no proof of me doing these things, he was just trying to destroy my reputation when he said those things.

He claims that I made Ultron, but he doesn’t know the first thing about technology and AI’s. I don’t know if I should be insulted or honored that I managed to make such an advanced AI in three days that’s sole purpose was to destroy the Avengers and all other people.

The investigation cleared me. I did not bribe those investigators. Their work is very high up in the government and they have been through many checks to assure that they are reliable.

I’m sure that Captain Rogers remembers that some of those investigators were also the ones who cleared SHIELD agents after SHIELD was infiltrated by HYDRA. If the Captain believed that these investigators took bribes, why wouldn’t he raise the alarm about a possible security threat about those agents?”

Tony takes a breath before continuing,

“Despite people’s beliefs that the Captain and I are good friends, that isn’t and never has been true. We work well enough together on the team, but we’ve never worked well on a personal level.

In our first meeting, he had already disliked me and was ready to start a fight with me and he never really changed his opinion about me. I apologized to him and tried to start a friendship, but I couldn’t do it with only me being willing.”

Tony sighs,

“Additionally I would like to add that, as everyone knows, Stark Industries is not doing well. I’m not going to let any of my employees suffer because of what the Captain says, so if it’s necessary, I will withdraw funding for the Avenger’s personal expenses.

I won’t be taking any questions.”

And with that he walks off the stage, ignoring all the questions being shouted at him. Happy quickly ushers him into the car where Rhodey is already waiting for him.

They don’t say anything and Happy drives them home in silence. Tony is rubbing his head, he already can feel the migraine coming.

When they get back to Avenger’s Tower, Rhodey helps him up and into his already darkened room, not even needing confirmation about his migraine.

Rhodey helps him lay down then brings him his medication and some water. Tony swallows it down then lays down and closes his eyes.

He feels a cold, damp cloth being placed on his forehead and sighs. He can hear Rhodey’s quiet footsteps and the door being gently closed.

It only takes him a few minutes to drift off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been a while, I got super busy and stuff happened. Always, enjoy this chapter!!

Steve glares at the screen in anger. He can’t believe that Stark said all those things to everyone. And using mind control as an excuse! He knows Stark is trying to target Wanda.

“And I though Stark couldn’t sink any lower,” he mutters.

He looks up and sees the faces of the team are reflecting his own.

“He’s trying to target me!” Wanda cries, “I haven’t even been near him for weeks, I haven’t done anything to him. Hasn’t he already destroyed my life enough?”

“We know,” Steve soothes, “We won’t let him hurt you. You’re perfectly safe with us. We can take him down if he attacks you.”

“We have bigger issues than that,” Nat says, “People are already demanding you give evidence for your claims and taking Tony’s side. You have some people on your side, but not enough.”

“Won’t the investigations give evidence?” Steve asks.

“They could take too long, and Stark might get out of them. He has a lot of pull. And if you don’t provide evidence…they could decide not to them because you don’t have any proof for your claims.”

“The public will believe me,” Steve says.

“Maybe, but if there is no investigation and Potts decides to sue you, she would win the lawsuit easily.”

Sam curses, “Stark always has to make things difficult.”

“He already ruined my life once, I won’t let him do it again,” Wanda says.

“Nat…” Steve says.

“I’ll reach out look into a few things. If it comes to it, we might have to hack Stark’s servers,” she says.

Steve would rather not do that, but if things come to he’ll let her. He has to protect Wanda and he hasn’t even found Bucky yet! He won’t let Stark get away with this.

* * *

When Tony wakes up, shaking and sweating from an intense nightmare, he notices his head isn’t hurting anymore.

_One less thing to deal with,_ he thinks as he reaches over with a shaky hand to grab the cup of water on his bedside table that Rhodey must have left for him.

He takes a few sips and tries to calm his racing heart. Ever since having that flashback in the bunker, he’s been having intense dreams about New York and being on the other side of that portal. Occasionally other memories (mainly Afghanistan) are also mixed in making everything so much worse.

Surprisingly, today’s round of nightmares was not as bad as the past few weeks.

Tony leans back against his headboard, taking deep breaths and wincing when that causes a twinge of pain in chest.

Despite getting the arc reactor removed, his chest had still gone through too much and still ached on occasion. It was a lot better than the constant pain the reactor had caused, some days bad enough that he couldn’t even get out of bed.

He shudders then looks at the door when Rhodey enters the room.

“You okay Tony? JARVIS said you had a nightmare,” Rhodey says.

“Traitor,” Tony mutters shooting a glare at one of JARVIS’ cameras

“You never forbade me from telling Colonel Rhodes,” JARVIS says.

“You never asked,” Tony says before turning to Rhodey, “And I’m fine. It wasn’t that bad.”

Rhodey raises his eyebrows, “And you’re clutching your chest because…?”

Tony sighs, putting his hand down, “It just aches sometimes.”

“Have you talked to Dr. Cho about that?”

“Yup, there’s nothing she can do about, there’s just too much damage done.”

Rhodey nods, looking a bit sad. He puts a hand on Tony’s shoulder and squeezes slightly then lets go.

Tony holds himself back from pathetically grabbing onto Rhodey’s hand. It’s just been so long since he’s been touched in a gentle way.

Of course, Rhodey can always read him perfectly, he sits down next to him and slings his arm over his shoulder.

“How’s your head?” Rhodey asks.

“Fine,” he says.

They sit there in silence for a few minutes before Tony sighs.

“I don’t want to get up,” he says, exaggerating the whine in his voice.

Rhodey smiles at him, “Then don’t.”

“But coffee,” he says drawing out the word.

Rhodey laughs, “I’ll get you some.”

Before Rhodey can get up, Tony grabs the arm that’s slung over his shoulder, “But then who will snuggle with me, honey-bear?”

Tony looks up at him with his best puppy eyes. Rhodey rolls his eyes with an amused smile. He sits back and barely a minute later Happy and Vision come into the room.

Tony’s eyes go directly to the steaming cup of coffee in Vision’s hand and reaches his hands out. He smiles at Vision when he hands it to him and drowns most of the cup in one gulp.

“All those years I’ve been with you and I still don’t get how you drink coffee like that,” Happy mutters.

“Practice,” Tony says, smiling at him.

He takes a few more sips before asking, “So how’s the public reaction?”

“It’s mixed,” Rhodey says, “Some people are firmly on Captain Asshole’s side, but a lot of people are a lot more skeptical now. You have quite a few people on your side, but the majority of people are demanding proof from Rogers and they’re undecided until then.”

“That’s…better than I expected. How’s SI doing?”

“About the same.”

Tony nods, “What about the mind control? Any progress on that?”

“Several people are concerned. Someone who calls themselves The Ancient One reached out and said she had information that could help us,” Vision says.

Tony raises his eyebrows, “Do we have any information about this Ancient One?”

Vision shakes his head, “I’ve been looking for information, but I could not find any. She only provided us with an address.”

“Anywhere nearby?” Tony asks.

“It’s pretty close,” Vision says.

“Okay, we’ll check that out tomorrow. Would you mind coming with me?” he asks Vision.

“Not at all,” he says.

“Are you sure?” Happy asks, “This sounds like a trap.”

“Agreed,” Rhodey says.

“You guys worry too much,” Tony says, “I’ll have my suit and Vision will be there. It’ll be fine.”

Rhodey and Happy don’t look convinced.

Tony sighs, “You two can come as well.”

“Much better,” Rhodey says.

“So what’s the next step in your plan, boss?”

“Plan?” Tony asks.

“To destroy Rogers,” he clarifies.

“Well, Pep and I left some breadcrumbs for the media. I’m hoping they’ll do a little digging and find some things.”

“Could you not just provide these to the media yourself?” Vision asks.

“I could, but people would be more trusting if they found stuff themselves. They might accuse me of making stuff up.”

Vision looks offended on his behalf, “You would never do such a thing!”

“I know, but they don’t. Trust me, they’ll find what I want them to look for,” Tony says.

“You mean Christine will find what you want her too,” Rhodey says.

“Pepper dropped her some hints. She’ll find it.”

“Who’s Christine?” Vision asks him.

“An investigative journalist. I met her before Afghanistan. We have an understanding.”

“That’s Tony speak for he slept with her.”

Tony glares at Rhodey.

“Is it not true?” Rhodey asks.

Tony huffs, “That doesn’t matter. She’s good at her job and she’ll get it done. Now come on. I’m hungry.”

“I’ll make breakfast,” Vision volunteers.

Tony can’t help but laugh at the looks on Happy and Rhodey’s faces.

“It can’t be that bad,” he says.

“You have no idea, Tones,” Rhodey says.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think!
> 
> Comments are now moderated thanks to the troll(s?) that showed up. I had a good laugh over their comments


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This got really long, but I didn't want to split it into two chapters so you guys get an extra long chapter today :)

A few hours have passed since Stark’s press conference. Nat has been sitting at the table with her laptop doing who knows what. Wanda is watching some TV and Sam is in the gym training.

Steve is pacing in front of Nat. He has so much energy built up and normally he would be punching things out in the gym, but all the bags were broken by now and Stark still hadn’t sent replacements.

He scowls, Stark has taken things to far now. He needs to talk to him about his responsibilities, but he knows he can’t go outside right now, not with people still asking for proof.

“Could you stop pacing, already?” Nat asks.

Steve stops, “I have nothing else to do. Stark still hasn’t replaced my punching bags.”

She sighs, “You should record a video.”

“What?”

“A video. Reacting to the press conference. People are going to get suspicious, the longer we stay silent. We have to go on the offensive.”

“Why a video? Why not just have a press conference?” Steve asks.

“Stark has friends in the media, they could ruin things. A video’s better.”

Steve nods. It is a good idea, he needs to let the public know he’s there to protect them and that Stark is lying as usual. He needs to put Stark back in his place.

* * *

Tony is enjoying a quiet lunch (that he made, not Vision after the breakfast disaster) with Rhodey, Happy and Vision (who’s just sitting with them), when JARVIS interrupts them.

“Sir, Rogers just posted a video,” he says.

It doesn’t escape his notice that JAVRIS refers to Rogers without a title. That meant JARVIS really hated Rogers as much as he could.

“A video? Who taught him how to post videos?” Tony asks.

“It seems to have posted by Maximoff,” JARVIS says.

“Play it,” Rhodey says.

A hologram appears in front of them and Rogers is standing there in full uniform, holding his shield with a big, fake smile on his face.

“Greetings to everyone watching this,” he starts off with, “I recently watched the press conference done by Mr. Stark and I was very disappointed by it. We all know he created Ultron and caused all that destruction because of that. He’s just using his money to get rid of his problems. And pretending he was mind controlled? I didn’t think he’d sink so low.

The Avengers are here for you, we will protect you and make sure to get rid of corrupt people like Stark. We know Stark’s been hiding things from the public and we will expose them in due time. You can count on us to protect you!”

The watch the video in silence and when it’s over Tony bursts out in laughter. He laughs so hard that he almost falls out of his chair. He runs out of breath pretty quickly due to his decreased lung capacity (another thing he could curse the arc reactor for).

He ends up leaning back in his seat, gasping a bit. Rhodey pants him a cup of water which he gulps down.

“How could the Widow ever let him post this?” Tony asks.

“I don't know,” Rhodey says, “She probably doesn't know about this.”

“I needed a good laugh, thanks for that Rogers,” Tony says.

“I wonder how the public will react to this,” Happy says.

“The strong supporters of the Captain are rallying behind him and supporting the video. Everyone else seems to be taking it as a joke. The video is already trending on Twitter,” Vision says.

“What about those people who are undecided?” Tony asks

“They haven't said much yet, but I'm sure there will be a big response to this. Despite the…wording of the video, Captain Rogers is still an important figure and many people will likely support him,” Vision says.

Tony sighs, “JARVIS send a message to Pepper to release statement say that the mind control is being investigated by the FBI and that is why we cannot release any evidence about it at this time and cite the report on my innocence in creating Ultron. And save this video as evidence for Pepper's lawsuit.”

“Will that be all sir?” JARVIS asks.

“Yeah, thanks J,” Tony says.

Of course Sir Jarvis says

“Now come on,” Rhodey says, “Let's enjoy this lunch and forget about that asshole.”

* * *

Tony dresses up in a nice suit the next day before going to meet The Ancient One. He covers up the huge bruise on his face with some makeup, making sure it’s completely covered up.

He has his suitcase suit with him and Rhodey is also carrying his suit with him.

Tony still thinks that Happy and Rhodey are being overprotected but he knows there's no point in arguing with them about this. He knows he's not going to win this argument especially because the information is a bit suspicious.

Happy carefully drives them over to the address that The Ancient One gave them to a place he's never paid attention to before. He steps out of the car and make sure his sunglasses are on and tries to keep his face hidden so no one pays attention to him.

He knocks on the door, hoping that it'll be opened quickly before people start noticing him and creating a crowd. Happy, Vision, and Rhodey are standing around him also covering him up from veiw.

The door opens pretty quickly, and a man greets them and brings them inside. He doesn't look surprised that the fact that he is not alone.

“The Ancient One will be with you shortly,” he says.

All four of them sit on one of the couches that they were brought to and Tony carefully looks around. His sunglasses are scanning all the objects in the room, but not picking up on anything unusual.

Then a lady in a cloak enters the room and walks straight to him.

“Mr. Stark,” she says, “I'm glad you could make it.”

“You must be The Ancient One,” he says. He looks up at her so his glasses can run facial recognition, but they don't get a hit for anyone.

_Strange_ he thinks.

“Yes, I am The Ancient One,” she says, “Sorcerer Supreme and the leader of the Sorcerers at Kamar Taj. Would you mind taking off your glasses? We don't want any recordings of our relics. For security reasons.”

Tony thinks about it for a few seconds wondering how she knows his sunglasses are recording everything and then decides to take them off and stick them in his pocket. He still has his ear piece where he can communicate with JARVIS if he needs to.

“Do you want something to drink?” she offers, “Tea?”

Rhodey covers up his laugh with the cough at the face Tony makes.

“No thanks,” Tony says, “I'm more of a coffee person”

“We have coffee as well if you would like,” she says.

Tony doesn't trust her enough to judge whether she's going to poison him or not so he refuses the coffee as well, ignoring the look Rhodey gives him.

“I'm quite surprised you brought your friends with you,” she says, “I assumed you would likely be coming with The Vision.”

“Yes, well my friends wanted to make sure this wasn't some sort of trap, they’re a bit overprotective,” he says.

Tony ignores the glare Rhodey and Happy are giving him for revealing that.

She nods, “That’s quite wise of them.”

“Please don’t tell me you’re about to pull out a knife and stab me now or something. Because I’m going to warn you I have my suit with me,” Tony says.

The Ancient One smiles, “No I’m not going to stab you. If I wanted you dead, you would already be dead.”

_That’s not reassuring at all,_ Tony thinks.

“So what do you want to talk to me about?” Tony asks, “You guys are some sort of sorcerers so this has something to do with the mind control I mentioned in the press conference yesterday, right?”

“Just like The Avengers protect the world from outside threads we at Kamar Taj, and our other Sanctums, protect the world from magical threats,” she says ignoring his question, “We've staying under the radar for centuries protecting this world from all sorts of dark magic.”

“So why come out and talk to me now?” Tony asks, “I’m not exactly inconspicuous. I bet this address will be known to everyone by tomorrow.”

“Don’t worry about that Mr. Stark, we are shielded here. And I wanted to talk to you because mind magic can be a form of dark magic that we protect against. And if it was being used to control you it could be a serious threat. We've been thinking about approaching you for a while about the mind stone in your friend's head, but you seemed to have that under control.”

“You mean the stone that came from Loki’s scepter? It's called the mind stone?”

“Yes. It is one of the six Infinity Stones. They are very very powerful objects, and I was sure you would not know much about them. We have several books about the Infinity stones here at our Sanctums which to let The Vision read them to learn more about the stone and how to control it and use it properly.”

Tony narrows his eyes, “And what happens if you think he isn't using it properly?”

“We cannot let such a dangerous object be used in the wrong hands,” The Ancient One says once again ignoring his question, “I'm sure The Vision will use it properly. I can tell he has been doing a good job so far we will continue monitoring him about it.”

Tony opened his mouth to say something about the fact that they’ve been monitoring Vision and are most likely ready to do something to him if he misuses the stone in their eyes, but Vision speaks before he can.

“I will appreciate learning about this Mind Stone,” he says, “It is very confusing.”

Tony decides not to antagonize her and asks, “So you said there were six of these Infinity stones?”

“Yes,” she says, “You have already come in contact with two of them; the Tesseract which contains the Space Stone and the Mind Stone which of course is in Vision’s head.”

“And the other four?” Rhodey asks.

“The Time, Power, Soul, and Reality Stones. We do not know exactly where they are.”

“You have another one here,” Tony says narrowing his eyes, “I can feel it.”

The Ancient One looks surprised, “You can feel it?”

“Yes,” Tony says, “There's just been this feeling I have around Vision and I had around the Tesseract as well. I can feel it here too.”

She frowns at him, “Well you are correct. We do have another stone here, the Time Stone.”

“So it's not normal to sense these stones?” Tony asks.

“No it’s not normal,” Rhodey says, “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“In my defense, I though everyone could,” he says.

“It's complicated,” The Ancient One says, “Some stones give off feelings like the mind stone and some people can feel when they're around certain stones, but not usually all of them. The stones are sentient, and they only allowed themselves to be known to the people they like. I can sense the time stone but not the rest of them. You seem like you sense all of them which that would mean that all the stones have a liking to you.”

“Why me?”

“I don't know but legend does tell of a man who will one day wield all the stones,” she says.

“And are these legends true?” Tony asks.

“Some of them are true, but this could just mean that the stones like you.”

“Why would they like me?” Tony asks.

“I wouldn't be able to tell you that,” The Ancient One says.

“Can these stones talk? Tony asks.

The Ancient One stares at him, “Why? Have you heard them speak to you?”

“Sometimes I hear voices in my dreams that feel like the stones’ voices. They call out to me and say things to me.”

Tony glances at Rhodey who looks extremely concerned.

“What do they say?” Vision asks.

“They just say that Thanos is coming.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry not sorry for the cliffhanger ;)
> 
> Let me know what you think!!
> 
> Follow me on tumblr @flowing-river24


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been a while, but I'm back with another chapter!!! Hope y'all enjoy!!
> 
> Make sure you guys check the tags because this chapter could have some triggering content!!!

Dead silence is what follows Tony’s statement. Vision, Happy, and Rhodey look confused, but The Ancient One’s eyes widen and she looks almost scared.

“What’s wrong?” Tony asks, frowning.

“Thanos is an extremally powerful being. If he’s coming here…we are in grave danger,” she says, then turns back towards him, “What else do you know?”

“Not much,” Tony says, “They’ve just mention that a lot and I think I might’ve seen him-”

“What did he look like?” she cuts in.

“Tall, purple, has an weird chin, kinda looks like an uglier purple version of the Hulk,” Tony says.

The Ancient One nods, “That is Thanos. I have to go warn the other sorcerers and start preparing-”

“We will be willing to help you with this threat of course, but what about the mind control?” Rhodey cuts in, “That’s what we came here for, you had information to give us.”

“Yes we have some information. Mind control is tricky magic, and it is possible that Vision did not get rid of all the magic, or the effects of it. And perhaps I can help you guarantee this won’t happen again.”

Tony sits up, “You can do that?”

“Most sorcerers can block mind magic on themselves and others if they are receptive to magic with an enchanted stone. Because the infinity stones seem to like you, I can assume it will work on you as well.”

“So you could get one for us?”

“The mind stone should protect Vision from mind magic, but I assume he does not know much about it. We have books here that he can read about the mind stone, but he has to read them here. As for your other friends, these stones are limited, I can’t give one to every person. I would only offer on to you because you have been mind controlled already.”

“I would be grateful for that,” Vision says.

Tony nods, already thinking about who he should give the stone to and if he could find a way to spilt the stone itself or the time they each have the stone for-

“I can tell you already that Tony’s going to pull some sort of self-sacrificing move and give the stone to us,” Rhodey says, interrupting his thoughts.

Tony turns to glare at Rhodey and notices that Happy nods in agreement to Rhodey. He glares at both of them and they holds his gaze. The Ancient One interrupts their staring contest to say,

“It doesn’t work like that. The stone only works on who it was given too.”

Tony silently curses. Rhodey knows him way to well. Perhaps he can research on this stone when he gets back to the tower and try to replicate it’s effects.

“I can check you for any leftover mind magic if you wish,” The Ancient One says, interrupting his thoughts.

Tony can feel his palms start to sweat and his heart start to pound a bit faster. He doesn’t exactly trust her enough yet to do magic on him, but what other choice does he have. Vision doesn’t know too much about mind magic and who knows what the person can have him do. Maybe they’re even watching this conversation.

At least this way Vision in here and he could probably tell if The Ancient One does something fishy. He sighs.

“Fine, but Vision will stop you if you try anything else,” Tony warns.

“I would expect nothing else,” she says, raising her hands then warning, “I will have to go into your mind and I may get glimpses of your thoughts and memories.”

Tony sighs and nods again. Vision stands and floats over to stand next to him, hovering protectively. Rhodey and Happy are both watching the Ancient One very carefully.

The Ancient One’s hands starting glowing with gold light and it drifts over to him. Then it hits him.

He panics, he can’t see anything. He’s trapped in golden light, he wants to scream, to run away to get the light away from him, but he can’t move.

It’s like being paralyzed all over again, Tony desperately wants to clutch at his chest to make sure the reactor is still there, but he can’t _move_.

_No, the reactor’s gone. No more shrapnel._

Then suddenly pain fills him, he wants to scream in agony, but he can’t even move a single muscle.

As quickly as it started, it’s over. The light disappears and Tony slumps forward.

Someone catches him before he falls off the couch. Rhodey. He clutches Rhodey’s shirt and gasps for air. His hands are shaking, and he keeps one hand grasping Rhodey’s shirt and clutches his chest.

He panics for a second when he can’t feel metal before he remembers. His chest still aches, and he can barely draw in a breath.

He flinches when he feels Rhodey’s hand move from his shoulder to his pockets. Rhodey is saying something to him. He vaguely hears him asking him to breathe and flinches again when he feels Rhodey’s hand in his pocket.

It reminds him too much of Stane who paralyzed him and stood over him, mocking him as he stole the arc reactor from his chest.

Rhodey’s hand disappears and a few seconds later he feels something at his lips. He flinches again and looks up to see Rhodey’s concerned face. He trusts Rhodey so he opens his mouth and Rhodey drops something into his mouth.

_His anxiety meds_ , he realizes.

He chews it quickly and his heartrate slows down, and breaths come easier. He closes his eyes and slumps forward into Rhodey once again while he catches his breath. Rhodey keeps a hand on the back of his neck and holds him there until his shaking stops.

He stays like that for a few minutes before he sits back and notices Happy and Vision are also crouching around them, looking concerned. The Ancient One is standing, facing away from him, and doing something with her magic, probably to give him privacy.

“I’m fine,” he mutters after a few seconds, waving them away.

They still look concerned, but they sit back down. Rhodey sits right next to him, probably to try and keep subtly comforting him. A cup of water, glowing with golden light, floats over to him and lands on the table in front of him.

“I apologize, I did not realize to warn you about that,” The Ancient One says, turning around to face him again.

“It’s fine,” he says, picking up the water and taking a few sips.

“The actual magic was gone, but some traces were left behind which I removed,” she says, then noticing his still slightly shaky hands, “Do you want some tea?”

“I’m good,” he says.

His therapist is probably going to be worried now that he had two anxiety attacks in less than a week. And all because of the Avengers who he’s been avoiding for this very reason.

The Ancient One interrupts his thoughts once again by walking over to him and holding out a simple necklace that has a glossy black stone tied to it. It floats over to him and he picks it out of the air.

“This should hold against most types of mind magic attacks, though it can be overpowered. It will glow and heat up when someone is attacking you,” she says.

Tony looks at Vision who nods, so he puts it on, tucking it under his suit.

“Were you able to tell who was influencing me?” Tony asks.

“There was not enough magic left to trace,” she says, shaking her head.

Tony sighs. Vision gets up to discuss a day he can come back to learn more about the mind stone with The Ancient One.

Tony hopes that JARVIS can find some footage of someone attacking his mind with magic, either in the bunker or some time after that. He’s worried that whoever it is might go for one of his friends once they realize they can’t get to him anymore.

He’s definitely going to have to do some research. The stone looks pretty ordinary, but Tony is sure it’s probably giving off all sorts of energy signals. He’ll have JARVIS scan it back at the tower.

And he needs to get all the information possible about Thanos. The Ancient One seems powerful, so if this Thanos scares her, they’re in for trouble.

Once Vision is done, Tony says, “So…tell us more about Thanos.”

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think!!


End file.
